Eliphas Levi

From Conservapedia

Alphonse Louise Constant who wrote under his psuedonym Éliphas Lévi (February 11, 1810 - May 31, 1875) was a French satanist, occultist, freemason and writer.

Levi influenced occult revivalists of the 19th century like Aleister Crowley and Arthur E. Waite. By 1853, Levi was working as a journalist and giving lessons in occult theories. He adopted the name Eliphas Levi from a Hebrew translation of his own name. He attended a seminary in Paris where he trained to be a priest. While at the St. Sulpice seminary, he learned about the devil, animal magnetism and energies, which lead to his study of the occult.

Levi traveled to England in 1854, where he met the Rosicrucian author Baron Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Lytton was known for his writings on occult, mesmerism, astrology, clairvoyance and magic. Levi formed a partnership with him and this launched his career as an occult writer. He published, in 1855, the book, Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (Eliphas Levi's Transcendental Magic Its Doctrine and Ritual), which was translated and annotated by Arthur Edward Waite.

In his book The Mysteries of Magic Levi wrote this about his god, "What is more absurd and more impious than to attribute the name of Lucifer to the devil, that is, to personified evil. The intellectual Lucifer is the spirit of intelligence and love; it is the paraclete, it is the Holy Spirit, while the physical Lucifer is the great agent of universal magnetism."[1]